[HPFGU-OTChatter] 30 Must Read Books for Kids

[John Walton]

Milz said:

> No Harry Potter listed. Looking over the list, I read most of them.
> Which brings this to mind. What were your favorite books as a child?

I too loved D'Auliare's Greek :)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of my faves as a small boy. I also had
an enormous collection of Richard Scarry books -- they had exciting things
like yellow diggers and fire engines in!*

*aside: I was given a ride in a fire engine by the local firefighters for
being precocious -- at age 5, a firefighter came to our class and showed us
pictures of all the engines and things. The teacher made some sort of
comment to the fireman like "So, is that a ladder truck then?", and I
crossed my arms and said in my best little boy voice, "No, Mrs Altman, it's
a *pumper* truck!" The fireman was really impressed so I got to go on a
ride. :)

Peter Rabbit was also a great book series -- I even had a Peter Rabbit
plate, mug and bowl from which I insisted I eat my supper every night. It
was broken in the move three years ago and I was really sad.

Babar (all of them) were great -- but I read them in French. "Babar le petit
elephant"... but his story is almost as violent as Bambi's!

Other than that, I had a great collection of the British "Noddy" books, by
Enid Blyton -- they were super, though perhaps a trifle culturally
insensitive (cheating, lying Golliwogs and the like...although I never made
the racial connection as a kid. Heck, my best friend next door's father was
from Guinea-Bissau! It was never going to be an issue). Similarly "Little
Black Sambo", handed down by my dad -- I never made the connection.

When I got older (6-7 or so) I started reading the Famous Five -- a stonking
set of books, again by Enid Blyton, very adventuresome. Just great :)

--John
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John Walton -- john at walton.to

Current...
Movie: Shrek. 11/10!
CD: Shrek Soundtrack ::grin::
Song: "Hallelujah": Rufus Wainwright (from Shrek soundtrack)
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